With Zelena’s plan foiled, Charming and Snow’s baby safe, Rumplestiltskin’s proposal to Belle, and Regina now becoming the hero, it seems like everyone in Storybrooke will live happily ever after – or will they?

There is still one more episode left this season – two back to back actually. It seems as though Zelena’s time spell activated anyway, but how? And what does this mean for our heroes? Let’s break this episode apart as look ahead to the magically wicked season finale of Once Upon A Time.

Baby 911:

We pick up right where last episode left off with Snow going into labor. As Snow is wheeled off to the delivery room, Regina and Emma start to set up their defenses. Whereas Regina’s magic might not be strong enough, Emma’s light magic barriers should be enough to hold Zelena at bay – more on this in a second. Throw in some dwarf lookouts and a lobby full of trained archers and you have a family that isn’t going down without a fight.

Letting Go:

As predicted last time, Zelena and Glinda’s friendship was forged in the time after studying under Rumplestiltskin, but so too was her downfall. We find Zelena very soon after turning Oz into a flying monkey, where she is greeted by Glinda the Good Witch who invites her to join her sisterhood of Witches. Despite Glinda offering her a new start and a chance to put the past behind her, Zelena still keeps wondering if her new sisters can help her change her past.

After hearing of the prophecy of the ‘chosen-one brought by cyclone’, Zelena finally starts to take control of her destiny and use her powers to better herself. With her putting her past behind her, she returns to her former non-green self since her Envy has left her. Sadly, that envy would soon return as a new girl is brought to Oz by cyclone.

Self Fulfilling Prophecy:

When Dorothy first arrives in Oz, Glinda tries to comfort the poor girl by saying she must be special if she survived such a traumatic storm. Despite these being words of comfort, Zelena’s old ways come roaring back as she now has a new object of her jealousy. After stealing Glinda’s book of records, she reads too much into the future and assumes that she must be the evil the ‘chosen one is meant to stop’.

Glinda tries to warn her of the dangers of misinterpreting prophecy, but Zelena once again goes on to become the very evil she was afraid of being. After dispatching of Dorothy by sending her back to Kansas, Zelena tells Glinda that she is unstoppable now that the chosen one is gone. This leads to Glinda being banished after she swears that she will find a new chosen one to stop Zelena. What happened to the Witch of the East and the North is unknown, as is what made Zelena finally leave Oz.

Confusion in Oz:

Two things during this flashback didn’t make sense to me. If Zelena though Dorothy was going to be her replacement, why did Zelena fake her own death so Dorothy could go to the wizard. If Zelena knew Dorothy wanted to leave – and thus see the Wizard -, there was no reason for her to see her as competition. If Dorothy was after Zelena’s chair, then attacking Dorothy and faking her own death would have made Dorothy the new Witch of the West. You see how this doesn’t quite make sense as a plan? She’s either giving Dorothy reason to replace her or sending away someone who didn’t want to replace her in the first place.

The second thing that confused me about this flashback is how Zelena was able to banish Glinda to The Enchanted Forest. In order to travel between realms you need a dark curse, magic beans, the hatter’s hat, a looking glass, an evil shadow, the white rabbit, or silver slippers. As far as teleportation in Oz goes, those slippers and cyclones are the only reasons Zelena was able to travel back and forth from The Enchanted Forest in the first place. So how was she able to just poof Glinda there?

Either I’m missing something or this is something Once should have explained a little better. Although to be fair, these are very minor points. I just want to make sure the writers don’t get sloppy now since they’ve done such an amazing job with everything else. If there’s one thing they should know by now, it’s that their viewers love the depth of their stories – so you can be sure they’ll look into it.

Spell mechanics:

As for how exactly Zelena intends to cast this time spell of hers, the idea actually comes from the very Witches of Oz she once considered sisters. Each sister represented a special part of magic and coincided with a particular cardinal direction:

North – Wisdom
South – Love
East – Courage
West – Innocence

By gathering representations of these parts of magic – as well as making sure they align properly with their direction – Zelena hopes this will magnify the powers of the spell in order for it to be the first successful time spell.

Stopping Zelena:

Before Zelena can make it to the hospital, Emma decides to bring the fight to her. Although a good idea at first, it proves to be a huge mistake when Zelena drowns Hook and the only way to save him is for Emma to use mouth to mouth.

With Emma’s powers drained, the barriers she placed around the hospital also weaken, which takes Regina and everyone by surprise. With wave after wave of their decencies broken, Our heroes are helpless to stop Zelena from taking the newborn prince, but they won’t fail a second time.

Being Good:

The Savior might be powerless, but Regina isn’t. After learning that she is capable of Light- Magic, Regina and the others make one final attempt at stopping Zelena. Though she seems to fail at first, Regina’s full Light powers awaken once Robin Hood reclaims her heart.

With Zelena now powerless, Regina decides to keep her goodness and not let Rumple kill her. Regina know as the hero she must give people second chances, yet Zelena still won’t listen. After she hears of how Cora killed the love of Regina’s life, Zelena still sides with Cora and clings to her jealousy of Regina.

It’s clear that Regina can do nothing to change Zelena’s mind, but she can right another wrong. In order to atone for keeping Belle prisoner for so long, Regina gives Belle Rumple’s Dagger.

The Proposal … I Mean Bait and Switch:

With the drama over, Belle and Rumple finally have a chance to be together again; and neither is going to let a moment go to waste. Belle gives Rumple his dagger back so that he may once again be in control of his destiny, but Rumple tells her to keep it – which is his way of proposing to her. There was no kneeling or ring, but I’m pretty sure an dagger to control your every move is as good enough an engagement ring as any. Although, why does Rumple look so pained when he hugs Belle?

It’s because he knows he can’t change who he is so easily as Regina can. There is still one more promise he must keep – the promise he made to his dying son – kill Zelena. In case you’re wondering why Zelena turned into porcelain, remember that’s what happened during Rumple’s dream in Season 2 when he thought about killing Henry. Maybe shattering porcelain is his finishing move, who knows? There’s a bigger question to be asked: What will become of him and Belle?

I’m not sure why Rumple HAD to propose to Belle with a fake dagger when he could have just as easily done it any other way. By doing it in this way he makes his killing Zelena into something much worse than it already was. He not only broke his promise to Belle, but also tricked her by giving her a fake dagger. Belle always stood with Rumple, but even I’m wondering what will come of this.

They’re my favorite couple, so I hope they stay together, but it won’t be easy – and Rumple knows this. The look of sorrow on his face when he embraces Belle is almost as if he knows this will be the last time he’ll hold her like this. In order to keep the promise he made to his dying son, he must risk his relationship with the one he loves. I certainly don’t agree with Rumple’s decision, especially now that his promise to Neal might hurt everyone in the town – DAMNIT NEAL!!!!!!

Magical Rebound – Trip Through Time:

As for what in the world happened at the end, here’s my explanation on what happened: As Glinda said, the pendant would harness, protect and grow Zelena’s power, but it would also in many ways become her life. With Zelena dead, the pendent would die too, leaving the overabundance of power with no place to go except the last spell she tried to enact – aka the time portal.

Now the portal was never meant for everyone to relive the past, so I don’t think all the residents of Storybrooke would revert to relive their pasts because nothing would change. Zelena wanted to go back in time to change something and thus set history on a different course. From the preview we see Hook and Emma dancing in The Enchanted Forest, which could never happen since Regina cast the curse and their age difference would be FAR too great to simply meet up as they are without curses or trips to Neverland to account for the same age.

I think Emma and Hook will be caught up in the time spell and will travel back in time to the Enchanted Forest. The real question/fear is whether they will go through unscathed or will they change something. Regina has made such strides this season. If Emma does something to spoil Regina’s current happen ending, I will be extremely upset. Hopefully Hook and Emma return to the present without much changed: leaving all the good intact, but perhaps causing a brand new evil to arise. *crosses fingers for Ursula* Either way, I just don’t want a good character to turn evil. I hate those stories – especially after we’ve spent so long waiting for Regina to be happy.